July 19, 1956

The Choice Jack Made

By DAVID DEMPSEY

MAGGIE CASSIDY By Jack Kerouac.

his short novel carries the young manhood of Jack Duluoz (for which read Jack Kerouac) in
Lowell, Mass., from the ordeal of latency, as revealed in the author's previous "Dr. Sax" to the joys
of adolescence. But whereas "Dr. Sax" was a pretentious and unreadable farrago of childhood
fantasy-play, "Maggie Cassidy" is a surprisingly simple and appealing tale of a young student's
fumbling search for love among the high school set.

Jack's dilemma is painfully familiar--who shall it be, Pauline or Maggie? Pauling comes to watch
him play football, but Maggie sends him love notes. Along the way, he is introduced to the poetry
of E. A. Robinson, Frost and Emily Dickinson. In spite of Culture, though, Duluoz can throw a
mean spit ball, and when it comes to track he runs the 30-yard dash in 3.8 seconds.

The gang's all here, too--Albert Lauzon, Scotty Boldieu, G. J. Rigopoulos, Vinny Bergerac and
Iddyboy (Joe Bisonette). Kerouac's portrayal of these second-generation French-Canadians is
affectionate, if somewhat shadowy. We have the feeling that he is not creating character here, but
simply recalling it, just as "Maggie Cassidy," in the end, comes across as an impressionistic
playback rather than a conventional novel.

But of course Kerouac is no conventional writer. You read him on his own terms or not at all. At
his best, he can give you poetic visions of the commonplace--the "proud flapping topcoats of
adolescence" and "the rutted mud of hardrock Time." It is the poet who ultimately wins out here;
as a novel, "Maggie Cassidy" is patchy and half-hearted.

Kerouac's hero unexpectedly makes his way to Horace Mann school in New York and from there
matriculates at Columbia, where he plays varsity football. Maggie, after Duluoz makes an
unsuccessful attempt to seduce her, is thrown overboard and the book ends on an ominous note:
Duluoz gets a job in a parking garage. Here begins that compulsive need to drive a car; at first,
inside the garage, backing and filling; later, there are unauthorized jaunts outside. Obviously,
Duluoz, the boy, is becoming father of the man, Sal Paradise, who beats his way endlessly back and
forth across the country in "On the Road." Could it be that this interlude in a parking garage was
the turning point in Kerouac's career?

Mr. Dempsey is a novelist and critic whose most recent book is "All That Was Mortal."